The European Commission is to prepare legislative proposals for exchanging information on bank accounts

The European Commission is to prepare legislative proposals for exchange of information on bank accounts to limit bank secrecy as much as possible.

EU countries will step up the campaign against tax evasion by tightening control over tax evaders and severely limiting banking secrecy. Currently, the EU is preparing a special legislative proposals for creating a unified data base containing information on depositors and companies, as well as dividends due to them, interest on deposits and other income.

Earlier last month, five EU Member States (Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain) have taken the initiative to create a "pilot" program of exchange of information on bank accounts and assets of its citizens, which they hold in other countries of the union. This program, the head of the EU, Mr. Herman van Rompuy, "will help reduce the possibility of Europeans withdraw their funds from taxation, costing the EU budget of 1 trillion euros per year."By the initiative of five EU Member States other EU countries joined, however some Member States disagreed this initiative. For example, Austria has refused to accept the initiative and said it intends to maintain banking secrecy, without violating its own constitution, which contains a provision on the inviolability of bank secrecy.

The Tax Commissioner Mr Algirdas Šemeta promised Member States he will soon introduce a new agreement on cooperation in the framework of the EU, aimed at creating an unified system of automatic exchange of information providing information on deposits including their investment income.

It is expected that the new measures of the EU authorities regarding tax evaders, will primarily affect Luxembourg and Ireland, which because of the nature of their laws have become safe havens for many funds in continental Europe. Earlier, Luxembourg has made a step towards the EU, agreeing to disclose banking information of individuals from January 2015.

Experts report that the initiative and the progress of Member States in joint control over tax evaders in Europe are being under discussion now and there is still no a certain confidence that the initiative will eventually be undertaken.